Starting a few months ago, someone has been posting Dilbert cartoons in the men's restrooms in our building. I'm a big Dilbert fan and found the cartoons very funny. In fact, I still laugh when I re-read some of them for the 50th time.
One of the recent postings hit a little too close to home...
I am reading a relatively old paper that makes reference to "thermal conductance", h, with units W/m^2K. From what I can tell, this paper uses the term "thermal conductance" instead of "convection coefficient," which is more familiar to me. Is anyone familar with the term "thermal...
I occasionally have the requirement to perform electro-static discharge testing on the components I design. The tester we use has a 600pF capacitor that is discharged at 25kV to simulate a severe static discharge from the human body. It is connected to desired positions on the test article...
There have been many threads in this forum in the past that discussed the future of engineering in the US. I came across this article today:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194696,00.html
It appears the current US job market is overall very strong, and here's the third paragraph of the...
Some of the technologists I work with have an irritating habit of acting like they are doing the engineers a personal favor when they perform work assigned to them. Said technologists expect a favor in return, usually in the form of food (donuts or lunch on the engineer).
I don't mind taking a...
As engineers, it is expected that we hold paramount the safety of the general public. Everyone has heard the expression "safety first."
One definition for "safe" (Webster's) is "free from harm or risk." I would argue that no product or process whatsoever is completely free from harm or risk...
Is it possible to render edges black in R2001? Basically, I want the edges of my solid models to be black, while the rest of the model (i.e., surfaces) is the color that I set using the "view/model setup/color and appearance" command.
Also, is it possible to actually show the threads on a...
I have a macro that automatically opens a handfull of files, cuts and pastes selected data into a master worksheet, and then plots the data. When I run the macro, it does everything correctly.
Towards the end of the macro, I've programmed it to do some formatting on the plot to get it into...
I'm trying to write (actually record) a macro for a repetitive data reduction process. Each test dumps 8 files into a folder. The names of each file in the folder are identical from folder to folder, but the folder names are all different.
What I'd like to do is open one of the files in a...
I have heard that "vapor polishing" can be used to improve the optical clarity of machined plastic parts (mine are Lexan). Is anyone familiar with this process?
I'm curious about what exactly is involved, how tolerances are affected, and how much it costs.
Thanks,
Haf
I am in need of Lexan (or a similar polycarbonate) tubes with an ID of 1/8". Apparently, Lexan tubes are not made with ID's less than 1/4" (I was told this by a plastics supplier). Initial web searches seem to confirm this. Can anyone suggest a supplier?
Another option, of course...
I have some questions about liability for engineers.
Under what circumstances is a PE personally liable in the US? I have heard several different viewpoints expressed by several different individuals in other threads. I have heard the contention that you are only liable for designs/plans with...
I have heard the argument that if all engineers were required to get a PE (or comparable professional licensure), the profession would be better off. I am interested to hear from engineers in countries where licensure is required (Canada, Europe, Australia, and others) to get some insight into...
This is an intriguing question that many posters have commented on or alluded to (see the “Where’s the respect?” thread). I have heard the argument that engineers are not respected because many are not licensed, or because licensure is not required. Furthermore, I see that many engineers...
I once came across a useful equation for estimating the convection coefficient for calculating convective heat transfer from the combustion gases to the surroundings (i.e., piston and bore) in a diesel engine. The equation was of the form:
h = C*b^(m-1)*P^m*w^m*T^(0.75-1.62*m)
where
h is the...
I have a unique application that essentially boils down to a cantilevered beam with a load acting perpendicular to the end of the beam. The unique part of the problem is this: we want the beam to be stout with the load acting in one direction (let’s say downward), and we want it to fail with...
I have a unique application that essentially boils down to a cantilevered beam with a load acting perpendicular to the end of the beam. The unique part of the problem is this: we want the beam to be stout with the load acting in one direction (let’s say downward), and we want it to fail with...
While I was in grad school, I had a thermo professor that explained in detail why ethanol gasoline additives are harmful to typical IC engines. I can't remember his exact explanation, but I seem to remember that it was related to ethanol's higher auto-ignition temperature and higher adiabatic...
I'm running Pro/E 2001 and just noticed that the "orient" assembly routine is no longer available. Is there a similar command that replaced orient? I can't seem to find it.
Here's some background on what I'm trying to do. Basically, I'm trying to assemble a ring with some features...
Suppose you have a material that you are heating with a radiative heat flux. You know the power density of the heat flux and the area it operates over. You want to calculate how long it takes for a given volume of that material to heat to a given temperature. Given that time (and the known...
